


Pokemon Mystery Dungeon - Obscure Encounters

by Bloodybellow



Category: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-14
Updated: 2018-10-14
Packaged: 2019-08-02 00:44:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 21,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16295066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bloodybellow/pseuds/Bloodybellow
Summary: A Shinx with no memories of himself, nor of what he was supposed to be, wakes up in a world quickly deteriorating into chaos. A force too great for anyone's understanding looms over it, all the while spacial anomalies spread across the land like a plague, with more and more Pokémon becoming affected by strange genetic mutations.(This is a rework, the original is still up on https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12712688/1/Pokemon-Mystery-Dungeon-Obscure-Encounters-outdated)





	1. The Awakening

"Come on, come on... There surely has to be something that'll work!"

Somebody, most likely a female, was thinking aloud, sounding like she was in a state of panic. "Why didn't I bring some reviver seeds!?"

My hearing barely picked up her words. This was the first thing my senses reacted to for an undefined amount of time. My breathing was slowly getting better, but making any sort of sound to tell her I wasn't gone yet was impossible for me. I tried to move my arms, my legs, anything, instead, to show her I was still alive. To stop her from worrying so much. Why was she worried, anyway?

She seemed to notice me trying to budge. I think that was one of my legs, but I wasn't sure. I couldn't feel anything at all. It was like my body was floating in mid-air, getting no responses that I was standing, sitting, or laying down. The third one felt most plausible. Yes, laying somewhere on the ground. She gasped in surprise not long after my attempts of moving.

"Oh my Arceus, it worked! I… don't know what I did, but it worked!"

I thought I heard her wrong. What did she say? What was that 'Arceus'?

My hearing was back again, for good. I could hear the wind whistling past me, the grass all around me and the leaves of a nearby tree. In that same tree I heard something chirping, quite possibly a bird.

...hold on. Wind? Grass? A tree right next to me? If my hearing wasn't fooling me, I must be outside somewhere. How did I get here? I could've sworn I went to bed in my room. I definitely did!

"Hey, are you alright?"

I tried to tell her that my entire body was numb, but I still couldn't speak. Instead, I attempted to slowly open my eyes. I saw a green and blurry image, behind it was most likely the brown tree with the leaves I was hearing, with it the grass everywhere, accompanied with the sound of rustling. As I thought, I was nowhere inside. My eyes instantly closed shut again before I could get a clear vision. It felt like they were burning, and they were starting to wet.

The identity of my "rescuer" was still unknown to me; she blended in very well with her surroundings, to my surprise. Maybe she had some green-brownish clothes. It seemed like we were in a meadow, whose grass was too tall. Next to me was a tree large enough for me not to see the leaves of it... I had the strangest feeling I had shrunk, or everything had gotten five times bigger than normal.

"Oh, no... don't cry now, you'll be fine."

Oh wow. She thought I was crying now. How absolutely funny... not. She assumed I was a crybaby.

I couldn't reason with her, as my voice had frustratingly still not recovered yet. For now I had to complain to her from my mind, not caring about the fact she couldn't hear my thoughts.

_I'm not crying! My eyes are burning!_

"Oh, I have an idea. Hold on."

She suddenly jumped over me and tried to lift me up, successfully. I laid limp over what felt like her back, carrying me to wherever she wanted to bring me. My body still protested against moving; at least the numbness was fading away, albeit at snail speed.

"I'll bring you with me to Inisio. They might be able to help you."

_Inisio...? What?_ Ok, now I knew with certainty I was anywhere but my home. I had never heard anything about a place called 'Inisio'. And yes, she was worried about me, but we had never met before.

"It's gonna take a bit until we arrive, so hold on."

At least she was helpful. Was I lucky she, of all people, found me? Maybe; any other person would've just abandoned me, let me be. Would've seen me as somebody sleeping under a tree, without knowing I had been unconscious until just now. For whatever reason. How long were I out cold, anyway? Must've been a while: I was starting to get a little peckish.

... _I know I was somewhere different just now, why am I in the middle of nowhere all of a sudden? Is this a… yeah, this has to be a dream. A lucid one. Now, don't get excited, or else you will wake up. Let's wait for things to calm down. ...also let me have control over my body again, please._

... _can you get hungry while dreaming?_

* * *

After a while, just laying on her back doing nothing felt boring, so I tried to open my eyes again to look around while waiting.

It took me a bit of time to gain a sharp picture of everything around me, and some blinking later I realized something.

I could see far better than normally. I was sure I could've easily identified the text of a book from a hundred meters away. Everything was much more saturated and clean. That was another piece of evidence that I was dreaming all this. Why it started with me getting conscious in the middle of nowhere was beyond me, but that meant the awesome lucid-dreaming-time was beginning.

I couldn't see much with my head hanging at a low angle, so the next things in my point of view were my hands. The lack of those, actually. Instead of what I was used to see, there was something else. At first I told myself that I was hallucinating, but after blinking a few times and unsuccessfully trying to move them, something was made clear to me.

Those weren't hands.

They were paws.

Blue ones, to be precise, with a yellow ring-like shape around the wrist of said body part. What kind of creature was I? I had never seen anything having blue fur, let alone those weird yellow rings! A fantasy creature, yes, that must've been it.

Slowly but surely my nerves started doing their job—registering all the fur I had, the body I was on top of, and… something behind my back?

Wait. The body of my carrier felt bizarre, like it had hard and wrinkly skin like a lizard. And sure enough, as I was looking down at her skin, this theory had been confirmed. The thing that carried me was also definitely not human. She had green scales all over her body. Around her neck were green dots, the size of a pea. Looked almost like a necklace. Apart from the fact she was quadrupedal, around her neck was some kind of bag. It was made out of leather, it seemed. What purpose it had was beyond me.

_...ok, calm down. This is not real. This cannot be real. It's just too bizarre to be real._

Yet, I was receiving every single detail of my senses very clearly by now. My vision had been upgraded tremendously (had my field of vision improved, too?). My nose—not a human nose anymore, I had a small snout on my face now, resembling a cat's snout—was now picking up the smell of everything in the nearby area: the grass, my carrier, the gravel from beneath, myself, and even some aromas I couldn't place where they came from or to whom they belonged. My hearing, too, as I'd noticed, was better than before. I was able to hear her footsteps on the gravel very clearly, as if I would've held my ear right next to her feet. The two ears on the side of my head were bigger than I anticipated, almost as big as my head, even, with a bit of yellow fur coming out in the mid-section of them. My taste buds hadn't reported anything unusual yet, but I found out my tongue was much rougher than it used to be, and my teeth were sharper, too, especially those up front.

_Can a dream be…_ _**this** _ _real? What if I'm not dreaming any of this? What if, by the most microscopic chances, this is all real?_

"Hey, you alright there?" The female suddenly asked, "I noticed you shifting around a little bit, are you feeling better now?"

All of this was distracting me from the most hideous feature of this creature: it was able to talk. Even better, I was able to understand it. The microscopic chance of this being real was just made even smaller. No way in hell could this be real—a talking, sentient green lizard, wearing a bag around her neck, carrying me to a place I had never heard of after I found myself in the middle of nowhere, with no recollection of my-

...no… recollection…? ...of my past life?

My heartbeat increased.

It was true—I couldn't remember a single thing about my past: not my home, not my parents, not anyone I knew, not where I lived, not even my… own name.

I forgot my own name!

The only detail of myself I knew right then was that I used to be a human. Used to.

This was bizarre—even for a lucid dream. Wasn't I supposed to notice I was dreaming while peacefully sleeping in my bed, and not lose almost all of my memories of my past? No, this wasn't right! Something was definitely wrong!

"Hello? Earth to sleepyhead, wake uuup. I know you aren't asleep, just tell me how you are, or if you're feeling better."

I panicked. Partly from her words, and partly from the fact I didn't remember my identity anymore. Normally this would be the time for me to wake up, I'm well beyond the 'don't get too excited, or else you'll wake up' line, so why won't the dream end?

Wait. The ultimate test to see if I was really dreaming. I seemed to remember generic details I learned from everywhere, the only things missing was to recall myself. The test was simple: _if I feel pain, I'm not dreaming. If I don't feel any pain, I'm dreaming. Simple enough._ Now, how could I have done this experiment the most efficient way…? Ah!

I lifted up my right… front leg? And bit down harder than I had intended to. To my shock, my front teeth went through my patch of fur, skin, and flesh with ease, resulting in me tasting my own blood.

To my misfortune, everything I'd seen so far—not really a lot, but weird stuff, nonetheless—was real. It was as real as it could get. I wasn't dreaming.

The pain followed not long afterwards. I jumped. Not literally, but still with enough force that almost knocked my carrier to the ground. The shock from the unexpected spike of pain, plus the realization this was, in fact, not a dream, made me fall off of her back.

She noticed me toppling off, but was too slow. She tried to catch me with her… oh god, what was that? Two green tentacle-like appendages just... grew out of two of her green dots on her neck. They attempted to grab me, but it was no use: they only managed to brush me on my sides. Before I could process what I had witnessed, I already crashed on the ground. Unfortunately, my landing wasn't as graceful as I would've liked; the center of my back fell directly on a bigger stone in the gravel pavement, making me yelp, though more in surprise than in pain.

My back was pounding as it hit the hard ground. Ironically, I wouldn't have minded the numbness I had felt before, but at least my senses had fully returned to me at last. This also proved once more I wasn't dreaming any of this.

Rolling to the side, I managed to open my eyes again, and finally saw the finer details of my rescuer from the edge of my vision.

The big, dark reddish eyes, looking directly at me with a bit of worry. The big and pointed leaf growing out of the top of her head, waving into the direction of the light wind blowing around us. Her scales shimmering in the afternoon sun, her quadrupedal stand, and the single, wide claw on each foot. Her two long, green tentacles slowly getting shorter by the second, until they completely disappeared into those pea-like things, and her neck still occupied in carrying a leather bag.

I wasn't sure how to process everything that happened thus far; these were without any doubt the strangest events I had witnessed in my life. All the while my breathing became increasingly more rapid.

"Oh my gosh, are you alright?" the creature before me asked with a shocked expression, making its way to me while apologizing. "I'm so sorry! I didn't notice you falling off… ...what happened to your leg?"

I was still ignoring her, my only intention now was to get out of here. I didn't know where I wanted to go, but the most important thing for me right now was to just get away from this alien before worse things happened.

Completely forgetting what she had wanted to do with me, my fear took over, bringing me to my feet. My hind feet. That was what my instinct told me, to get on my feet and just flee.

To my misfortune I couldn't seem to get a good stand on them. Because of the whole thing of me being a quadrupedal creature now, apparently. I lost my balance and tumbled to the ground again.

"Hey, hey... what are you doing? What's up with you...?" Now, it started to look annoyed by my actions. I couldn't blame it. It was pretty stupid and really embarrassing to look at. "Calm down... It's not like I will eat you or something..."

My thoughts were screaming at me. _What. Are. You. Doing?! She was trying to help you and you just run away from her_ _ **as**_ _she was making her way to you?_

Slowly but surely, my panic and hyperventilation subsided and my rational thinking got a turn. I looked at her eyes. She wasn't happy, though she didn't appear angry. It was more on the line of a 'what the actual fuck are you trying to accomplish?' stare.

I had to do something. Hopefully, my voice was back. It should be, from the yelp I gave from me just now.

"...what are you?" I bluntly managed to say to the creature, deep down hoping she could understand me. The result of having shrunk made my voice sound higher than I thought it should have been. The higher, but still belonging to a male, pitch of my voice made me jump back a little. I put one of my paws before my mouth out of surprise.

At that point she looked rather confused to say the least, not really expecting any of those sorts of questions.

"Did you hit your head after crashing?" she asked me. She raised one eyebrow (at least it looked like she did) and looked at me funny.

"... No…?"

"Are you sure?"

"Look. I know what I did just then, ok? That was just my panic taking over me for a second. I couldn't really counter-react to that. I'm sorry for overreacting." I hoped apologizing to it would ease the tension between us.

"Ok, I know what my instincts tell me to do when I'm in a phase of fear and panic. But to get on my hind legs and make a run for it isn't one of-"

"Alright, alright! I get it! ...it was stupid, yes. Now please, just... answer my question, please." I stood up, taking care to get on all four of my feet simultaneously and to not look like a complete idiot. My facial expression told her I wanted a real explanation to what was going on here.

It seemed to work, as the plant lizard sighed.

"Alright, to me it seems you got yourself a case of severe brain damage with a sprinkle of confusion," it teased anyway, apparently trying to be funny and lighten the mood, obviously not working on me. "But I think you haven't seen one of my species yet, because we normally aren't common in this particular area of Ferom."

_Ha. You and me both, apparently. Wait, Ferom?_

"But," she continued, ripping me out of my thoughts and holding one of her legs in front of her, "my name is Kori. I'm a Chikorita. You know, a Pokémon." She chuckled. "Nice to meet you."

"Um…" almost immediately noticing the familiar way of greeting another, I naturally returned the gesture, setting my left paw on top of hers—I didn't know any other way of doing said gesture, I had to think quickly while making sure I wouldn't use my leg where I bit myself—trying to recover from the horrible first impression I gave her. "Nice to meet you... too?" I lost my balance again, but set my leg back just in time. "No, I have never heard of a Pokémon before. I mean where I came from, animals normally don't speak to each other; like this, I mean. They don't have-"

"Wait wait wait, hold on." She held her other paw up. "You're confusing me now. What do you mean by... never heard of Pokémon before?"

I didn't want to go full out on her too quickly, telling her I was some other creature—quite possibly alien to her—who turned into one of theirs. But I couldn't find any other way of telling her why I wasn't familiar with what seemed like the most trivial thing in this world.

"I should have said this earlier, but I'm a human."

She started to open her mouth to respond to my for her illogical nonsense again, but I stopped her before she could say anything with the same gesture she did a couple seconds ago.

"Before you tell me that I haven't been making any sense yet, I know that. But hear me out first," I told her, while she still had her mouth partially open, slowly closing it and putting her paw back on the ground again. "Yes, you heard me right. I really am a human. Well, I was one, as you can see. Now I'm some sort of blue lynx creature talking to you. Like, we are doing a real conversation together, which I thought was impossible with animals back where I came from. You see, back there, animals like you, no offense, couldn't talk. They just make these incomprehensible noises, but don't speak like we do right now. They don't have their own language to communicate with each other, for the most part.

"When they feel threatened, for example, they growl at their threat. They don't talk it out like we do. That's what fascinated me just now. Communication doesn't exist there. Only humans are able to communicate with each other, because we are able to understand one another, and could come up with various languages we can use to verbally communicate."

It seemed like that explanation didn't seem to work on her, but at least the confused look on her face toned down a bit.

"...what do you mean by 'animal'? If it means wild creature then I get it, we have these, too."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah. Any 'mon unable to communicate is a 'wild'. The Starly and Pidgey you hear chirping in the trees? Wild."

"Starly and Pidgey?"

"The birds. You know? Flying creatures with feathers and wings?"

"Oooh, those are their species' name, right?"

"Yes, absolutely correct."

_She must be feeling like she is talking to a toddler._

"Also, uh," I added, "sorry for asking this, but do you know what species I am? I... can't figure it out, hehe."

I looked at my body again, surprised I could turn my head almost 180 degrees to the side as I was investigating my back. While doing so, I noticed my fifth limb: a tail (was this the reason I felt like I was dragging something?). At the end of it was some sort of star-shaped appendage.

"So, you are saying you are a human turned Pokémon, is that right?" she asked me, ignoring my question and making my head turn back to her again. "That's a lot to take in at once. It's not everyday that you see someone saying that they were a human once. Especially when they don't exist anymore."

_Wait, what? Humans are extinct? And... she believes me? Just like that? ...would it be a good idea to say that? I'd rather not risk it._

"They don't exist here? Can you elaborate on that, please?"

"Sorry, I don't know much else. Just that they are ancient beings that once roamed the world several millennia ago. The reason they are gone? Unknown. At least that's what I had been told." I guessed she shrugged her shoulders, because it looked a bit strange since she didn't really have shoulders like I used to have. "But enough of that, let's get going. I heard there is a village nearby, just a few kilometres from here. That's where I wanted to go before I found you."

I really had nowhere to go, so I just nodded and tried to walk next to her. It was strange to be mobile on four legs; it was a completely different method of walking. It took me a bit to figure out how not to slander like an idiot, but it worked out in just a few minutes.

"Hey," I turned my head to the Chikorita while walking on the gravel path, "can you now tell me what exactly I am? You know, because I don't really know anything about Pokémon in general, so you have to be my guide for now."

"Of course." She inspected me a bit, walking around me while I made sure I stopped, so I wouldn't interrupt her. "Looks like you're a Shinx."

"Shinx, you say?"

"Yeah, a Shinx," came the answer from her. After a bit, she added, "Do you have a name? I don't want to call you by your species' name. Nobody does that nowadays."

Yeah, my name. That was easy. I should be able to say that. That was, if I hadn't forgotten every single detail about me. _Can I just say I don't remember?_

"...about that, uh..."

"What? You're not gonna tell me you don't know, right?" she said, "...right?"

"Well, that's… exactly what I had wanted to do. I don't know. I don't remember my name."

"...you're joking."

"I wish I was."

She looked at me in disbelief. I couldn't blame her, I would've done the same if I were her.

"I see," Kori answered and turned her head back where she was able to see in the direction we were going. I did the same, I didn't want to fall again for the hundredth time. She thought for a bit, and had an idea. "Do you mind if I think of a name for you? Until you can remember your true name, that is."

"I don't see why you shouldn't. Sure, go ahead, I'm open for suggestions."

While Kori was thinking of a name for me, I was in my own thoughts, processing what had happened until now.

_So... this is where I am now? In an unknown world, being one of those strange and mysterious beings known as Pokémon. where another one of those is luckily my guide, helping me find at least some answers to my sudden appearance. How long have I been laying back there, anyway? And more importantly: how did I get here? There's just no way this is without reason. Come on, think! Did I happen to notice something after going to sleep? Anything? ...nope, nothing. Looks like my personal memories have been replaced with an empty void. Am I possibly here for a reason, then? If this is the case, then the reason better be a good one._

_And... why me, exactly? Why choose me, in particular? Literally anyone would have been better suited than I will ever be. I mean, why not choose somebody already existing in this world to solve their problems, and not 'kidnap' someone from an entirely different world, if not universe? That would be much more convenient. But no, for some particular reason, my sorry ass was chosen to fix these issues they can't fix themselves. And my amnesia isn't helping, either. I'm kinda lucky having Kori taking me with her to wherever she's heading. I don't know what I would've done if we hadn't crossed paths... maybe I still would've laid back there while-_

"Xunie." She said, interrupting my train of thoughts.

"Xunie?" I repeated, raising one eyebrow at her.

"Yeah, Xunie. That'll be your name until we find out otherwise."

"Xunie..." I tried to understand what that name meant, or where it came from, because I noticed that Kori was a part of her species' name, Chikorita. But failing to do so, I also realized that name wasn't exactly perfect for a boy. "Isn't that a bit... um... girly?"

"What do you mean? No one would care if a name sounds girly or not. You could have a name like Shiny and nobody would even look at you funny, even if they'd know you're a boy. It's perfect for you."

"How are you so certain it's the perfect name for me?"

"Trust me, I just know." She smirked at me, winking with one eye.

_I'm not so sure about that, I have a feeling you didn't know any better names to give me. I could've just picked one myself, but that wouldn't feel right. It'll remind me of my loss of memories._

"I hear no objections from you, so from now on your name shall be Xunie." She turned her head to look at me, confirming her decision with a smile on her face. "Temporarily, of course."

"Fine... call me that, then." Defeated, I rolled my eyes, still not sure if I should've trusted her with the whole name thing.

Continuing on our way, I took the time to properly analyze my new body. Starting at those yellow rings on my forelegs, I saw no practical use as to why they would be there in the first place. They seem to just be some sort of decoration? The blue fur everywhere was still kinda putting me off a bit, I'd have to cope with that for the time being. Sometimes I had those urges to stand up on my hind legs again, probably because of obvious reasons—I just ignored it and tried not to do it again. The fact I had to walk on four legs now meant I wasn't able to do anything anyone could do with arms (I hoped I would be accustomed to that relatively quickly).

From earlier I noticed something strange from the second half of my torso: my fur color drastically changed from an almost sky blue to a simple black, as if the color was like a light turned off. The black fur reached every bit of my second half until the tip of my, uh, tail. On it was something yellow and star shaped, seemingly just there to exist with no real purpose, like the stripes. Just decoration. My neck fur, if I focused on a particular angle with my head and my eyes, had the shape of a tight scarf, also the same black as the rest of my torso. My ears were still the same: almost as big as my head and with some yellow fur in the middle.

"Hey, do you know-" I wanted to ask Kori about some details of the sudden black fur, but I quickly noticed she stopped in her tracks a few meters behind me after I've turned my head to the spot she normally would have been. "Why did you stop? Is everything alright?"

It was then that I noticed; something wasn't right. The Chikorita just stared into the distance, completely ignoring my question. I didn't know what she was staring at, exactly, the only thing I could see was the gravel pavement before us, leading into a denser part of the forest-

The reason why she stopped was simple: in the distance, where the forest really started, were little, purple lightning bolts, randomly popping in and out of view, their movements unpredictable. Some went down, others up, and every other bolt was in between. That area seemed to be electrically charged, for whatever reason. But they didn't damage the trees around them at all, which made no sense. And why they were purple was beyond me, too.

An "Uh oh..." came from Kori, who was a bit hesitant from continuing any further. It seemed as if she knew what was waiting for us.

"Hey, what's wrong? Why did you stop?" I said while I made my way back to Kori.

"It seems we have quite the obstacle in our way." Not wanting me to not know what she was thinking, she told me what was going on: "Some distance away from us is a Mystery Dungeon."

"Explanations, please." I just stoically looked at her, as if that would be the most redundant reason to make such a fuss out of this situation. But… those sparks in the air should've made me feel at least a little bit worried...

"Oh, yeah. Sorry." she immediately replied, snapping out of her petrified stare into the distance and turned to me. "Do you see these floating purple sparks there?"

"...Yeah, I did see them."

"That's a pretty clear sign of a Mystery Dungeon being there. Normally you wouldn't notice them until it's too late, but this here is a lucky exception."

"A… lucky exception? What do you mean by that?"

"As I said, you won't notice a Dungeon until the very last second, but this one here has something special to it, as seen on those swarms of lightning. Some others have a similar trait, like: sudden heavy rain with no clouds above you, showing a different season, or even distorting the area around them. We'll see which speciality this one has when we enter."

"Uh huh. And… is it always a forest, or…?"

"Not really, sometimes it's a cave, other times it's a mountain, it can be a meadow, too. Just to name a few."

"Can't we go around it?"

"...yes, we could, but there are instances where you kinda have to go through one. Have fun walking around a cave. Sometimes you don't have a choice but to go through. I've always loved to explore the unknown, especially the Dungeons, that's why I have this bag here with me. You see, I'm part of an exploration team!" she said, proud of herself. "I got the mission to carry something important to Inisio Village."

"Exploration team? What's that?"

"As the name implies, a team of explorers. We explore the region. Together, the continent. Our base is in Amber Village, there are many more like it scattered across the continent."

"And you were tasked to transport something?"

"Yes. Sometimes we help others, too. Like I'm helping a Linoone to deliver a letter."

"Linoone?"

"Yup."

"No, I mean, what is that? How does it look like?"

"Oh, right. Uh, it has a long body with mostly light brown fur, with some occasional darker brown fur on its sides and along the back, where it ends up in an arrow shape on its head. You'll know when you see one from that."

I nodded and looked back at the Dungeon. Oh! With all these annoying questions she forgot to explain the Dungeons to me… I quickly reminded her about that.

Once she had thought for a moment, she began to talk.

"So, first of all," she began to explain, while occasionally glancing at the path in front of her, "the most important thing about Mystery Dungeons is that no matter how many times you visit the same one, it's always a different pattern for how the dungeon's 'floors', let's say, are laid out.

"For the sake of simplicity, let's imagine this scenario: you go into one of them and you find a path that branches into two directions. Say you choose the left path, and luckily for you, it leads you to the exit—the next time you enter the same dungeon, there's no guarantee that the left path will lead you to the exit again—or that the branching path will be there at all. No two visits are the same. It means that making maps of the layout of the dungeon's 'floors' is impossible.

"I know that sounds illogical, but that's how they are. Hence the name 'Mystery' Dungeon."

It sounded like a thing she made up just now, but she looked like she was serious. But... how did they end up like that? How could they shift their floors like that, creating entirely new passages in them, while the environment wasn't being damaged at all? Or was there some damage done, but just not visible... underneath them, maybe? ...And how had the Dungeons been created?

_Well, looks like I'll have to see it with my own eyes to believe it. They're kinda interesting, and at the same time scary, to be honest, how they defy the laws of... like, everything. Don't they create earthquakes nearby while they change? They should, shouldn't they?_

"That's definitely interesting," I answered, interested in those dungeons and relayed my thoughts to Kori, "By the way, how do these Dungeons form?"

"That's also something nobody knows. They kinda popped into existence one day, I can't remember when exactly, but it has been some time since."

_Like how I just appeared out of nowhere?_

"Well, good news is they don't spread. Imagine that: someday the whole world would've become a giant Dungeon, infinitely long, with no exit." She looked at the dungeon again.

"Oh, t-that would indeed be horrifying." I said. Just imagining a town getting swallowed by one of these Dungeons sounded scary enough. No one could do anything to prevent that. Only watch as your home is slowly converted into a Dungeon by an invisible and unstoppable force.

"So, are you ready to continue?"

"Yes. I'm excited to go through the Mystery Dungeon, too."

"Oh, feeling a little adventurous?"

"I guess, yeah."

Remembering what I had initially wanted to ask Kori, I now had the chance.

She told me I was an electric type Pokémon, and she herself was a grass type. She continued to explain what those types meant, saying they represented the powers of the individual Pokémon and what they could do with their respective element. Kori was able to throw razor sharp leaves from her giant leaf on her head for example. They span rapidly and got stuck in trees, even—I realized that it replaced the part of the leaf from where the dangerous ones came from, but I didn't press it any further.

_Wow, those are really dangerous. One false angle or gust of wind and someone will get seriously injured._

Along with that, she also could throw some seeds that grew two little green leaves. She explained to me that when these seeds hit another Pokémon, they latch onto it, suck out their energy and transfer it into the body of the thrower.

_Wow, that's kind of morbid... sucking out the life force of another one. That's just straight out of a sci-fi horror movie._

Before she could continue her show and tell, I interrupted her with a question of my own about those seeds.

"Hold on, wait. What the hell are those for?" I practically almost yelled in shock, realizing she has some sort of an extraterrestrial way of draining one's energy with only some seeds, "I can understand the leaves, they can be practical on some occasions, I guess. But where would you see these seeds as useful? That's just for torturing someone."

She just quizzically stared at me for a second. It was as if that was the most trivial thing she could do. But she quickly put two and two together.

"Oh, so… yeah, uhm, most of the time—nowadays, at least—we don't really have that much use for them in our daily lives. Except for when you're being threatened, then these can and will save you."

"Uh-huh. And that would be…?"

"For example, the Dungeon before us. Did you happen to notice any wild 'mon near you, by chance?"

"Not… really? Birds, yeah, but nothing more."

"The thing is: wilds are scared of us. They keep their distance from us, hide from us, run away from us. They know we are more intelligent and stronger than them. So they aren't an issue most of the time. But…" she looked at the purple anomaly for a moment, "in a Dungeon, doesn't matter which one, the wilds in there are a million times more territorial and aggressive than in any other place. And I mean it: they won't stop attacking until either you, or them are dead. So you need to be extra careful in there, who knows what's waiting for you."

"...oh, wow. A... battle to the... death? Uh..."

"Don't worry, they use more brawn than brain. So with strategy you can overcome any situation."

It was pretty clear why she—or anyone, really—would be able to do all that, after her telling me not all Pokémon were as tame and talkative as she was. _It's just like survival of the fittest in there._

Continuing from where we left off, she added that the seeds weren't permanent. When the victim faints, the leaves decay, and are no longer stealing the energy out of it. The same will happen with the thrower itself—when it is no longer able to battle, the leaves decay too.

Lastly, she showed her two vines to me. She explained she could use them as makeshift arms for holding stuff, and for attacking. They were used like whips, making a sharp snapping sound every time.

_Oh my- ...those are vines. Not tentacles…_

I asked Kori if she knew what my own attacks were, trying to distract myself from my thoughts. She answered that I had to discover it myself, I would know best what sorts of attacks I was able to do.

"But what do I have to do to... trigger them?"

"Just... concentrate on your inner electricity and try to let some of it escape, I guess? I dunno, that's what I do with my attacks, and after a while it just goes subconsciously; I don't know how to explain it better, sorry. It could be something entirely different for your species. We'll have to ask some other electric type Pokémon, they should know best.

"But when the concentration method fails, just remember that you have your claws and teeth, too. If you somehow get into a situation where you can't attack with your electricity for whatever reason, use those. They are like your backup plan. But for now, try to let some of your electricity flow through you."

So I could generate my own electricity, she claimed. That didn't make any sense, but I rolled with it for now, given she could just grow two more appendages at will.

"Alright, I'll try. Here goes nothing."

We halted again for my trial and errors in trying to control my type of element. I didn't know what I exactly was supposed to focus on, or what to search for, but I tried everything that would seem plausible for me. If I would be the electric energy, where would I be... 'stored'? Where would it make the most sense?

I first searched at the front part of my chest, but only found my usual inner organs, keeping me alive (on second thought, this would've been the worst possible place for it). Next was the back part of my body, where the belly was; there was also neither anything noteworthy, nor anything like an electric storage. Remembering that there was something at the end of my tail, I tried there, but wasn't able to locate anything either, even with my utmost focus. All of my efforts were futile. It would've made no sense if it was stored anywhere else.

"Ah, I can't find anything...", I eventually sighed. "I've concentrated on everything I can think of, but I can't seem to find it..."

"Oh, really? Sorry that I couldn't help very much. It seems you have to rely on your physical abilities for now. ...you do know how to, right?"

"I'm sure I'll get the hang of it."

* * *

Finally arriving at the Dungeon, Kori asked me one more time if I was truly ready to enter the Mystery Dungeon. I nodded, of course—I was really eager to see the inside of one of those, after what she had told me. The feature I wanted to see most was the shifting of their interior floors.

Now that I was practically next to those purple lightning bolts, I noticed those weren't lightning, they looked more like ripples. Plus, their unpredictable movement began to charm me. Was this its 'speciality', as Kori called it? A feeling of satisfaction slowly came over me, as they seemed to form into shapes. Their movement had been random until now, but as I kept watching they slowly performed a lightshow of some sort—was it getting brighter?

"Woah, Xunie, stop looking at it!"

I first didn't hear her, only after she blocked my vision from them I managed to, after blinking a few times.

"Wha-? Kori? What happened?" My vision was still partially filled with those purple lights whenever I blinked, but they didn't do any harm.

"That must be the Dungeon's special trait, charming unsuspecting 'mon into it with their sparks."

"Ah. Thanks for warning me." I was right, that was indeed its speciality, a pretty dangerous one at that. "Kori?" I initially had one more question before we entered the Dungeon, but had been distracted.

"Hm?" She looked back at me.

"How big do you think this dungeon is?"

"Oh, uhh... I have actually no idea, three or four floors, maybe. Well, sections, to be exact. Forests have no 'floors'." I snickered at the thought of forests having multiple levels, and she smirked. "That would look really stupid. But we have wasted more than enough time chit-chatting, let's enter the Dungeon already."

She was right about both things.

"Yeah." I nodded in approval. "Let's go."


	2. Exploration

**Sudowoods S1**

The moment we moved closer to those purple fizzles, the air around us shifted dramatically. It felt much thicker now, as if we just entered another dimension parallel to ours. It was like the air itself was being artificially created just for those who are in said Dungeons. Kori told me nobody knew anything about them, and now I could see why. It was the strangest feeling I had ever experienced; after the fact that I was some kind of electrical lynx creature now. Wind was non-existing here, it seemed. It also was very quiet, I only heard my own footsteps on the grass.

Out of curiosity I turned myself around to look at the gravel pavement we had been traveling on for the last thirty minutes, only to stare at a wall of trees, blocking the entrance. I jumped in surprise, not expecting this. These trees were like a solid wall, even growing together in themselves in some parts, just to make sure that no one was ever permitted to leave through those outer trees and escape the dungeon prematurely. I even noticed something odd about them: it was the same tree copied and pasted right next to each other.

On the wall was a big green caterpillar with unusually big eyes and a red antennae on its forehead, splitting in two. On the tip of its tail was something that looked like what a rattlesnake would have, but without the noise. It tried to get up the wall of trees, the leaves on top were probably its top priority. I wanted to take a closer look at it, but the thing on its tail suggested I should, under no circumstances, disturb this caterpillar. Who knew what it was capable of. Suddenly, it stopped. Out of nowhere. Why it did that was a mystery to me, but it very quickly solved itself after its black eyes were locked onto me.

I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do. My distance to it didn't feel safe anymore, so I slowly took a step back. This turned out not to be a good idea, for it fired some sort of white string at me, while my foot was off the ground. It scared me so much I shrieked and fell to the ground, while the caterpillar jumped onto my belly. Now its priority was… me. My vision was impaired, but that didn't stop my hearing from picking up hissing sounds it made, and my legs felt as if they were bound together, so running away wasn't an option. Was it going to eat me?! The small legs it had wouldn't stop moving, making this all the more uncomfortable. I struggled to get it off of my body, but the strings on my legs made it hard to move them. They felt so sticky and really icky to the touch, and it sticking on my fur everywhere was at least a hundred times worse than a spiderweb to the skin.

But to my relief I had Kori with me. She noticed the monster on top of me a little bit too late than I would've wanted, but with one, two whips with her vines it had let go of me. I tried to scurry back to her, scared for my life, but my legs didn't manage to. But luckily she came to me and helped me remove the webs of string from my legs and face.

"Urg, thanks, Kori." I said after a deep breath of air.

"No problem. Be more careful around those Caterpie next time, ok?"

"Oh, I will be, don't worry." I sighed. The Caterpie was laying on the ground next to where it pinned me down, some vine markings were visible on its skin. Disgusting green blood was slowly oozing out of them. I wanted to look away, but found out I couldn't. This was something that was gross to look at, but at the same time interesting. After closing my eyes I managed to look away. _Thaaat's something I don't want to see ever again thank you very much._

Now continuing with my scan of the Dungeon, the top of the forest wasn't much different than the walls. Its dense vegetation of thick branches and leaves left barely enough room for sunlight to hit the ground, but still enough to see one's surroundings. The branches seemed to grow infinitely long, sometimes growing through some of the higher tree's trunks. On one of them was a big cocoon, better to not go near that.

"Dungeons are pretty spooky, huh?" Kori was now staring at the massive wall behind us, not a single bit of anxiety visible neither in her voice nor on her face. It looks like she must have travelled through many of those dungeons before. "The way it just throws you somewhere random without you noticing it. As if the laws of space are thrown together and mushed into a puddle of an unrecognizable mess."

I nodded in response. The giant caterpillar and the wall of trees around us was enough proof that they were indeed scary.

The area we had found ourselves in was like a room, with two sides having some sort of opening to go through; where there was a hole in the wall, the trees formed an arch, to keep their task at blocking the sky. Kori signaled that we should go, and I quickly followed her. _On second thought, these Dungeons are a bit too much for me than I initially thought. And the only thing I had been looking forward to was the shifting of their floors. Other than that, getting out of this anomaly as fast as possible._

We went through some sort of corridor with barely enough room for us to walk next to each other. I picked the option to walk behind her. The walls were still the same tree copied and pasted next to each other. Those halls were connected to more of those rooms, because not long after traversing through it, we entered another bigger opening.

On the other side of the room, inside of a thicker part of grass laid something I had never seen before. It looked like a berry, but not with the usual colors or size I thought berries had. Its round form was acceptable to me, but the blue color of it indicated it wasn't ripe at all. It even had, from this distance barely visible, black dots on it. On the other hand, it was way bigger than I thought they can normally get. And where did it came from, exactly? There were no signs of some berry tree or bush nearby.

"Hey, Kori. Do you know what kind of berry that is?" I asked my guide about it.

"Huh?" She turned to me. After scanning the room again, she hasn't found it yet. "What do you mean?"

"It's over there." One of the tiny fingers of my paw pointed at the berry, the claw of the same part was extending from inside. I looked at it subconsciously, trying to withdraw it and extend it again, not noticing I was dimming out everything around me.

"Really? I don't see anything." Kori said while she was making her way to the spot which I had indicated. Halfway there, she saw the item I meant. "Ooh, there's an Oran berry hidden in a patch of grass! Nice catch."

For me my paws were much more interesting right now—I didn't notice her coming back from the found object. She had to poke me to get my attention.

"Huh? What?"

"I got the berry you found." She had grabbed it with one of her vines, with it being wrapped around the berry. Her vine made its way to me, holding it in front of me to look at it better.

"So, what is that?"

"It's an Oran berry. It has the ability to make you recover much faster after a fight or training. Plus it tastes sooo good. Its skin is hard to crack, but once you manage to open it, the juice from the inside will do its work. It's without a single doubt the most common and loved berry for everyone." She said before putting it in her bag.

"Ah, interesting." _Not at all exaggerating with this._

Going through the only other hallway and taking a sharp right turn, we entered a room with a tree in the center of it. Not just any tree, but a tree full of fresh apples. I heard Kori gasp.

"Look at that!"

"At what? The tree?"

"Duh, what else?"

I wasn't sure why she was so excited about an apple tree… were they a rarity? I shouldn't complain, an apple right now would be nice, I was getting hungry. Meanwhile she almost jumped with glee and grabbed a few with her vines.

"Hey, Xunie, you wanna have one?"

"Yeah." I nodded.

She proceeded with throwing the apple in my direction, landing right in front of me. It was perfectly red, as if it had been painted. I laid down and ate it, while making sure it wouldn't roll away after taking a bite. It was rather unusual for me to eat something on the ground, and even more so without hands. I made sure that no part of the apple already eaten from gets direct contact with the dirt. After finishing the apple I felt nicely full.

Sadly, we hit a dead end.

"Looks like we have to go back." I stated the obvious.

"No, really?" She jokingly replied as we turned around.

Before we could walk back, however, something stood in our way. Due to mysterious reasons, a relatively small tree, with a few yellow spots on its trunk and a small amount of leaves at the top, had popped into existence and was standing in our way. On both its sides was a branch going in an upward angle, and ended at two smaller branches on top. Not knowing the existence of said blockage, I nearly walked right into it. I took a few steps back, slowly realizing my reaction time had also been improved by a lot.

_Woah, where did that came from? Is that the dungeon's making? I should really start expecting the impossible in here..._

While I was wondering why the tree was there and how we were supposed to go around it, Kori already had her vines out and ready, with a stern expression on her face.

"Careful, Xunie. That Sudowoodo surprised you, didn't it?"

_Sudowoodo? Does she mean that tree? That's a strange name for a-_

Suddenly, the seemingly lifeless tree moved on its own. Its two branches with their three small bushes, which almost looked like arms and hands, snapped out of their petrified state and started to shift their position from an upward angle to a downward angle. The strangest part was that it seemed to just had grown a set of eyes, which were locked right onto me, and a long mouth beneath them. Its roots were replaced with a pair of legs, it now standing with those.

I couldn't believe my eyes; for a second I was considering the thought that I was hallucinating this time for real, but after a quick glance at the walking trunk before us, one thing made itself clear in my head.

_THAT THING IS ALIVE?!_

I hastily took another few steps back, while staring at the intimidating tree. The fact that this thing was towering over me with over four times my body height didn't help me keep my dread at a manageable level at all. Its intention was clear as glass after it vocalized its feral battle cry.

I practically froze in shock; my muscles paralyzed and my fur standing on end. I managed to close my eyes and waited for the inevitable impact.

...But it never came.

Instead, a strong sound of a whip cracking went through the air.

I slowly opened my eyes again, and was met with a different scene from what I had anticipated. Lying next to the entrance of the hallway, the walking trunk, with a lethal dent in its body. No sounds or movements were coming from it after the brute force of Kori's attack. She knocked it out with a single hit. Her weak looking vine just smashed against a rock and it exploded into a thousand little pieces.

Kori was retreating her vines back into her neck and looked at me disapprovingly. Her facial expression told me everything I needed to understand what she was thinking of right now.

She saved my sorry ass. Again.

"I-I... uh..." I started stuttering, and just now noticed I was holding my breath the entire time. I wasn't sure if I could find anything reasonable to say to her after my second rescue on the same day, but I tried anyway. "Listen, I-"

"No, you know what," she interrupted me, holding one of her legs up and shaking her head, the leaf swinging alongside her movement. I was fearing what would have awaited me afterwards, but was surprised yet again, "don't worry about it. You wouldn't have been able to do much against it. Not without electric attacks, at least."

_No, because of my stupid action of not doing anything after it moved._

It appeared the Sudowoodo was unconscious, or at least it hadn't moved since its unfaithful encounter with Kori's vine. Interested, I examined the creature a bit closer, whilst still holding my safe distance to it. The first thing I'd noticed was the body of this thing wasn't made out of real wood, it looked too smooth to be any kind of bark. The small bushes at the tip of its two arm-like branches weren't exactly little bundles of leaves, either. Those, too, were much too flat to have any resemblance with leaves. The little brown pieces (pebbles?) next to it didn't help me much to determine what exact element this creature was.

_I'm confused. Is this creature a living tree or something along the lines of a walking stone creature, disguised as a tree? Is it a Pokémon, too?_

Seeing Kori idling at the entryway of the hall, waiting for me to follow her, I eventually answered her offer and made my way to her.

"So… what did you mean by 'not been able to do much'?" I asked on our way back to the first room.

"Against the Sudowoodo? Oh. Maybe now's a good time to tell you something I forgot."

"And that is…?"

"The types of Pokémon." She continued to tell me every type there was, what type the Sudowoodo were—turned out they were indeed made of rock, at which types I should take excessive caution when battling, and more. She told me her attacks for example were great against rock, but not against bug.

_So that's why its body was almost cut in half, but the Caterpie's just had wounds._

By the time she finished explaining, we had entered the next clearing. There was something that had catched my interest, not the other green cocoon on top, but a small round tunnel in the far right corner. It was much smaller in height than the hallways, and was much more overgrown with grass, moss, and small flowers. Their aroma was wonderful, as I had noticed.

I was lucky and happy to not have met any more of those Sudowoodo on our way back. For now we had to keep our guard up for any other aggressive Pokémon we might run into. Kori said we should be careful, even when the inhabitants were weak.

* * *

**Sudowoods S2**

After going through that tunnel, we entered another empty room. It felt like we made progress, and I was right: the tunnel wasn't there anymore. But now we had three halls to choose from.

"Huh," came from Kori, more of a whisper, "this is a small Dungeon…"

"Now, which way do we go?"

"You choose."

"Uh… ok… I choose the middle one." I had a good feeling about this.

It turned out it lead back to the first room. But upon entering, a shrill cry came from above us, and in the next moment, Kori was pinned down by a dark blue bird with seemingly two tails and a wide beak. It had white feathers on its belly region, and red ones on its face with a V-shape on its chest.

Kori tried to hit it with her vines, but it evaded every attempt of her. How was it able to move so fast? She tried it with her leaves, still no luck.

"Xunie, don't just stand there, I need a bit of help!"

That woke me from my trance, with me not having been moving since its cry. But what was I supposed to do? Pin it down? Ram it? No, what was I thinking, just get it off of Kori! It hadn't noticed me yet, it was now or never!

Now focused at the wild bird, I managed to get a good run-up, and jumped. Unfortunately I jumped way too high, missing the bird by almost half a metre. I was surprised at how well I could control my body now, and how high I had leaped. But that also meant there was no stopping me while I was in the air.

I ended up crashing head-first against the wall, and with an "oof" I landed on the ground—the grass softened my landing a tiny bit, at least.

My attempt wasn't in vain, however, as the blue bird was now focused on me instead of Kori. Before I could stand up again it was already on my back; its talons gripping tightly. My second attempt worked, and I tried my hardest to get it off my back. It effortlessly evaded every move I made, it seemingly always a step ahead of me.

"Get off me!" I said with clenched teeth.

Kori jumped into the action, grabbing the bird by its neck and legs, lifting it up. However, the talons were still grabbing tight, resulting in me getting picked up, too. This was just for a second or so, until the bird let go. After the landing I noticed my back stinging pretty badly. A few cuts were visible, but nothing big.

Meanwhile Kori made sure its talons and beak wouldn't interfere with what she was going to do. It tried its best to break free again, but to no avail. I stared at the bird for a good half minute, seeing it squirm, chirp, and flutter around.

"Now, Xunie, get it!"

...huh? 'Get it'? What did she mean by that?

"Come on, I can't hold it for long!"

Wait, was I supposed to do something?

"Xunie! Don't just stand there!"

I… I was. Now it hit me. While she was holding and keeping it still, I would come and finish it.

I had to kill this bird.

Wasting no more time, I mentally prepared myself and quickly got on my way. My heartbeat accelerated, getting more nervous by the second. _Calm down. You'd have to do it eventually, anyway. There is no other way. Either it dies, or we do._

It felt like my subconscious was telling me where I should strike—was this my instinct? I didn't want to do this. But I had no choice. Kori now held its head up, furthermore indicating where I should attack it at.

I locked eyes with the bird, and it did the same. There was no mercy in them, only bloodlust. Its cries were getting obnoxious. It didn't seem to give up at all. The Dungeon did this to it, didn't it? Scrambling the wild's mind until only its aggressive instincts were left over. Would the same happen to us? What if there were 'mons like Kori or me in here, acting just as primitive as this bird?

Our eyes were still locked in each other's glare. Now was the time, I shouldn't waste any more of it. I lifted my paw, claws outstretched, and struck its throat.

It surprised me how easily my claws got through its feathers, skin, and flesh. Like I was cutting through butter.

With one last raspy breath and attempt to break free, it fell on the grass, lifeless. Its legs twitched a bit, but it quickly subsided. The color of its eyes was slowly changing to gray. Its pearl-white belly feathers began to look like the feathers on the neck, but more darker red. I looked at my now partly red paw, my claws drenched in its blood.

I… killed it.

I couldn't look away from the corpse, despite the fact there was nothing more I wished for right now. Why had I… felt happy? _I just killed something! Why do I feel happy?!_

"Phew," came from Kori, "any longer and I couldn't have held onto it anymore. Taillow have pretty good tenacity. ...Xunie, you alright? ...Xunie?"

"I… hehe. I… killed something."

"Xunie, calm down, it's-"

"I'm a murderer. Hahaha."

"Now you're scaring me, stop that."

I now looked at Kori, being happy, sad, and terrified at the same time.

"Are you seeing this?" I held up my paw with outstretched claws.

"Xunie! Snap out of it! This is perfectly normal in Dungeons!"

"...huh?"

"Didn't I say earlier the inhabitants of them only stop attacking when they are unconscious or dead? You had no choice, that's how the Dungeon works!"

"But… I-"

"I know you're most likely not used to see anything dying, especially when it's from your actions. But that's how it works here, believe me when I tell you that _this_ here," she pointed at the bird, "is very common when traversing through Dungeons."

"I- I'm… I'm sorry."

"It must be difficult for you to accept this, I know. But you have to."

I sat down, looking away from her. "It's true. As… as a human, I… very rarely got to see dead creatures, and I wasn't responsible for any of them. For me it's always sad to see somethi-"

Out of nowhere, the thought to be dead Taillow stood up again, and growled at me. Its wound was still there, and was still bleeding.

"Woah! What the f-"

"Xunie!"

With speed I had never witnessed before it tossed me into the corner of the room, pinning me down again. Its eyes were blood red now, with even more bloodlust. What was it doing now? I tried to slash at it again, out of self-defence, but no matter how many times I hit it, it wouldn't fall down! No matter where I hit it: at its eyes, at the neck again, on its belly, wings, nothing worked! It didn't even flinch!

_**...You ...why are you here?!** _

Before I could realize what the hell was up with this zombie, Kori grabbed the Taillow with her vines again, and hurled it against the opposite wall. A sickening crack filled the room as they contacted. The spot where it hit was red now, in the form of a splat.

"What…" I managed to say in between breaths, "what was that?! How did it talk?!"

"That's… what? It talked?"

"Yes, it… it said something like 'why are you here'..."

"...oook. I think you imagined that. I only heard growling from it."

"No, it talked! I know it did!"

"That's impossible. You... definitely imagined that out of shock or something." The rest was only a whisper, "But still, I have never seen this kind of thing… he clearly cut its throat, then why…?"

_I know it did. It was loud, and warbled, and… sounded like it was coming from everywhere at once… arg, I don't know anymore. ...maybe it was just a hallucination…? But..._

We looked at each other, and mutually agreed on continuing before anything else happened. While we were going through the hallway, every few seconds I was looking behind me to see if that bird came after us. Luckily, it didn't.

In the next room were three hallways to go through again. Not counting the one behind us.

...Wait.

"Uhh, wasn't there…?"

"Ooh, it's one of these floors! I like 'em!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Look there."

She pointed at the bird she flung into the wall just seconds ago. It hadn't moved yet, so that was a good sign.

"Wait… are we back at the entrance?!"

"Yup, we are."

"Wh-..." I let my paw touch the wall where the corridor used to be. Nothing. Solid wall stood in my way. As if it never existed in the first place. The laws of space were flipping me the bird, literally and figuratively. "And how are we supposed to find the exit here?"

She thought for a bit. "Well, the only thing we hadn't done yet was going through the right hall."

"But… the middle one let us back here through the right one?"

"That's right, buuut…" She indicated I should follow her through the right hall. _But that'll just lead us back to the entrance, what does she want to show me?_

Low and behold, we entered a completely different room. This one was empty, however.

"Ok, I don't know how this is possible, but this is a dead end."

"No, it's not." She grinned. "Look behind you."

And she was right, the hall we came from had disappeared, too. What even… were we stuck now?!

"Now turn around again."

I did exactly that, and was greeted by the same tunnel we saw in the first section. _WHAT?!_

"W-what? How…? HUH?" I frantically looked around the room, and found out the tunnel was the only way out of it. This was getting confusing, how was this even possible?

"I had the same reaction as you after going through one of these," she said, half laughing and half speaking, "oh, how wonderful. I love these. You never expect them, and when you do, they always have plenty of surprises ready. ...By the way, are you alright? I saw the Taillow scratching your back, does it still hurt?"

I checked on it, and it seemed the cuts were healing pretty rapidly until now. It was still stinging a bit, though. The rest of my body was fine.

"It's stinging, but doesn't hurt."

"You wanna have the Oran Berry?"

"Uh, yeah, sure." Partly because of the annoying stinging, and partly because of curiosity of the taste it had.

"Here you go."

"...mhff," she wasn't lying when she said its skin was hard to crack, it felt like I had a stone in my mouth.

With a strong bite, I finally managed to crack it. Immediately I felt the fruity taste in my mouth. The inside felt like it was full of many small bags, filled with its juicy liquid. It tasted wonderful, it was sweet and a bit sour, but just the amount of sourness that it mixed perfectly with the sweet part of it. I didn't know if it was the taste, but I gradually felt the stinging subside. I felt a lot more energetic than before, even.

* * *

**Sudowoods S3**

As we entered yet another hallway, I couldn't shake the feeling that we were being watched. At first I marked it off as just some paranoia from me, after what happened in the last section, but when I heard something rustling behind us I almost jumped.

"W-what was that?" I stuttered, turning around to see what caused this noise.

"Probably another wild. You don't have to be so worried. I'll protect you from those monsters." Her tone indicated some slight traces of humor, she was using it to try to make me feel better.

I was unable to locate the source of the noise—to my relief and to my horror—while Kori was already on her way again. I briefly witnessed her turning a corner in the hall. I was yelling for her to wait, me meanwhile running towards said junction. Strangely, I tripped over my own legs, maybe because I wasn't yet forced to walk faster than the usual walking speed. It didn't really bother me, but it was enough to increase the distance to my guide. I turned the same direction as Kori did just seconds ago, now with improved caution to my feet.

"Hey, wait for m-"

After the turn, I stopped dead in my tracks. I was expecting my guide standing there, waiting for me to catch up. But instead, something else greeted my vision. A solid, wooden barrier made of tree trunks.

It was a dead end.

_Wh- huh?_

My eyes ran along the wall blocking my way, my paws were now touching the wall just to be sure. Yes, it was there; I wasn't going crazy yet.

_I... couldn't have just hallucinated her going this way, right? Is this another one of these floors like last section was?_

I quickly turned my body in the other direction of the branch, only to see an empty corridor full of emptiness. As if she was never here.

My heart was, yet again, beating faster.

I didn't know what to do, I didn't know where to go, and I didn't know why my guide was gone. But one thing was certain to me.

_Breath in. Calm down... panicking won't help me in the slightest bit here. Breath out. The most important thing right now is that I find Kori._

I wanted to shout her name, in order to see if she would've been in the nearby area, but I quickly went against that idea—as this would only attract the wild Pokémon, and that would be the very last thing I wanted to happen. The only option I had was searching quietly for her.

Remembering the sudden noise from before, I checked on any kind of suspicious movements or sounds coming from where we entered. Finding nothing, I started my quest of finding Kori.

_This goddamn Dungeon just gets worse and worse. I can't believe I was eager to get into one of these abominations of nature, or whatever they are. I'm just hoping I'm not going too far away from my 'guide'..._

Slowly and steady I made my way through the empty corridor.

_And the Pokémon who roam in here, weren't doing me a favor, too. I can defend myself, if only out of desperation, but what if I meet one of those stone trees again? The Sudowoodo? The only reliable option is to run away, but what if I land in a dead end?_

I entered a small room, which was empty; except for the item laying just to the right from me.

_Now what in the hell is that blue spherical thing now?_

Its smooth surface seemed almost too even to be held onto. I would've tried it out, but there was just one small problem.

_How am I even supposed to carry stuff with no proper way of grabbing them?_

Then, it struck me. I could've just rolled it along with me.

_Oh my god, I'm a genius!_

But when I wanted to lay my paw on it—one for my genius rolling idea, and two because of my curiosity in how the surface of that item felt like—someone, or more like something spoke to me.

_**Trawl Orb.** _

"Ah!" I almost screamed and jerked my paw back after hearing the unknown voice in my head. Quickly shutting my mouth, and with a racing heart, I looked around me to make sure I didn't lure one of the wilds to me. When I heard nothing suspicious, I sighed and tried to calm down.

_What was that?!_

Still in a little shock from earlier, I decided to touch the blue circular thing again. Maybe this orb was the source of the voice, who knows? I hoped it would be. This world had been very strange ever since I opened my eyes.

_**Trawl Orb.** _

_Ah, it's just this orb telepathically communicating with me, like it's some sort of psychic. Great._

The voice sounded like it came from everywhere at once, even from inside of me. Almost like the… voice of the bird… but without the gentle and feminine voice.

I put the thought aside, and concentrated on finding her again.

_What does it even do? Seems-_

_**Trawl Orb - Pulls all items on the current floor to the user.** _

_...Oh. Nevermind then._

Continuing my search for both Kori and the exit, I stopped right before the hallway I had the intention of entering. Looking at the orb beside me, something came to my mind. Maybe I could use this to get some help from an item?

I decided to use the orb. At least, I would, if I could.

_...Uh, how do I activate it?_

Looking around said sphere, I didn't find anything that implied 'I activate this thing'. I pondered for a moment, just what was I supposed to do to use it?

_Come on, activate, for-_

Suddenly the item was glowing ever so brightly, that I had to cover my eyes from it. This lasted for about five seconds, before it stopped and just disappeared.

Looking around, it seemed like nothing happened.

_...ugh, did it even do what it's supposed to do, or did the Dungeon interfere, with its magical magic? Or are there no items here?_

Something landed on the grass next to me and rolled a little bit in my direction just as I wanted to continue. Its red semi-circular shape instantly told me what it was supposed to be.

Another apple. A very fresh one at that. The orb seemed to have completed its task, but…

_Is that all? Just an apple was on this floor? I would've hoped for a more helpful item than just something edible. Oh well, at least I got_ something.

Instead of the blue orb, I now had to somehow bring the apple with me. Rolling it on the ground, like I used to do with the previous item, was a possibility, but then it would be all dirty and everything. Carrying it with my body was not something I could do, because I didn't want to hobble on three legs for the rest of the search. Maybe if I were more experienced and accustomed to my new body, then this would've been no problem.

I decided to just push it with my paws. The dirt wasn't really a big of a deal, as I had noticed the apple was on grass most of the time, instead of only the ground below.

After a while of walking and pushing, I was so happy of the absence of those wild Pokémon. It was only me and the object next to me. It was so quiet, too, as I only heard my footsteps, the apple as it was rolling around in the grass, and even my own heartbeat.

_It's really peaceful here, when there are no wilds in the area who are out to kill you. Normally this would be very suspicious, but I don't care. The exit's right here, too. I mean, I hope it is._

Before me was the usual smaller, round tunnel, overgrown with the common greens in the area. I had to smell the flowers again, their scent was just beautiful.

_But now the question is: should I wait here for Kori? Or should I continue to search for her? What if she was already in the next section?_

No, I was sure she would've searched for me. Kori _was_ searching for me, right?

_Of course she is, stop worrying about that. She wouldn't just abandon me because of some stupid Dungeon._

I occasionally switched glances at the small tunnel before me, the hallway where I came from, and the only other passage, now certain I should just wait for her. She'd come by here eventually, right? The floors before weren't that big, only on the first section did we turn the wrong way, making it longer than it should've had to be. So why would it be different here? I found the entrance to the next section rather quickly, too (I secretly hoped it was leading out of the Dungeon), so Kori couldn't be that far from me. Maybe she even was in the by me unexplored passage right now?

It was then when I looked at my initial passage again, my heart went from zero to one hundred in an instant. The only thing that I absolutely didn't want to see was standing at the entrance of the room. A tree me and my guide had met in the first section. The same tree with yellow specks on it was idling not too far away from me, seemingly waiting for the perfect moment to strike. How long had it been waiting there?

I had the brilliant idea of not moving at all. _Maybe_ , I thought, _it can't see me when I don't move._ That was quickly proven wrong, because the tree moved in the exact same way the first one had, before it had tried to attack.

_Uhm… maybe now would be the best time to make a run for it and pray that I find Kori._

And just like that, I was sprinting into the other passage. Being extra careful to watch out that I, under no circumstances, allowed myself to lose my balance and trip over again. Who knew what this tree monster would be able to do to me.

"Kooriiii!" I screamed like I was followed by a demon from hell, "Where are you?!"

Turning a corner, I noticed the hall before me was unnaturally long, seemingly stretching for several hundred metres. Ignoring this anomaly, I concentrated on getting away from this wild Pokémon at any cost. Its footsteps were still reaching my eardrums, and the slight vibration after every step it took were picked up by my paws. My body screamed at me, _faster, faster, go faster_ , but I didn't listen to it. The risk of tripping again was high, even at the speed I had now.

Slowly arriving at the junction, I mentally prepared myself for the turn to the left. The moment I wanted to slow down, my curiosity got the better of me and my vision switched to the Sudowoodo for a short time. That proved not to be a good idea, it was only a couple metres away from me.

Suddenly, it jumped forward and was attempting to hit me with its branched horn—or whatever that was. Just in time, I managed to jump to the left and landed, to my surprise, very gently on the ground. As my legs wanted to carry me forward, away from my aggressor, a peculiar sound entered my ears.

I stopped, looked back, and questioned my luck.

The Sudowoodo was stuck with the top of its head in the wall of trees surrounding the Dungeon. It wanted to escape from its situation, but to no avail; the missing parts of the wall seemed to have regrown again, resulting in the Sudowoodo being completely stuck. The little arms and legs it had didn't help much, either. They were just a little too short to get a good grip somewhere to help itself getting out.

A sigh escaped my lips, partially relieved that I'm not in immediate danger anymore.

"Nice try, next time be more careful where you're- woah!" It hadn't given up on attacking me, however. I barely evaded its… finger-bushes...? And took a few steps back. _That was too close for my taste. That's what I get for mocking..._

"Xunie," I jumped, not anticipating someone to call me. For a moment I thought it was the wild Pokémon saying to me, "there you are. I finally found you." but to my relief it was Kori.

"Oh my god, Kori!" I was so delighted, I wanted to tackle her out of sheer happiness.

In the heat of the moment I had her wrapped around in something that resembled a hug. I was so happy to see her again, the feeling of safety had returned.

It didn't last long, though. A few seconds later I realized I was embracing someone who I only knew for less than an hour. Putting my happiness aside, I let go of her and chuckled embarrassingly.

"Oh, Xunie. No need for embarrassment, I get that almost every time when I find someone lost in a Dungeon."

She noticed the Sudowoodo still stuck in the wall, and just stared at it for a moment.

"Did… you do that?"

"Uh, I guess?"

"Well, that's one way to stop it from attacking. Did it really…?" She looked closer at the part where its antennae should've been, "Yes, it's completely stuck, that's hilarious! Oh, they won't believe me when I tell them what I've seen here."

It hadn't given up on its aggression yet, still trying to hit us with its branch.

"Did you find the exit, Xunie?"

"Uh, yes. Yes, I did."

"And it's past that stuck Sudowoodo?"

"Yes."

"Hmm. Guess there's only one thing I have to do to get past it."

"And that is?"

"This." She casually proceeded with throwing her leaf-blades at it. Every hit it yelled in pain. Despite the fact this creature wanted to kill me, I still felt sorry for it. I was trying my hardest not to think about what happened in the last section. After a few more hits, it stopped its yelling.

"Hmm," came from her, while she was tapping it with one of her claws, "ok, it's safe to go now."

I crawled under it and followed after her.

"Oh, by the way, Kori. What happened back there? You suddenly vanished!"

"Ah, yes, that was a trap."

_Ugh, another thing I have to be careful of?_

"What kind of trap resulted in you going poof?"

"It was a teleport trap. It teleports you to a random location on the current floor when touched."

"It… can teleport you? Like, real teleportation? But… why had I not been teleported? I was on the same spot you were..."

"It's one-time only. It destroys itself after it has been used. The same goes for all other traps found in Dungeons- ah, you found an apple? And there's the exit, too. Nice."

"There's other traps?"

"Yep, but not every Dungeon has them, for whatever reason. Looks like this one can have them."

"Oh, and," I interrupted her while she was putting the apple in her bag, "I actually didn't find the apple first. I found something called a 'Trawl Orb'."

"You found a Trawl Orb? Oh man. Tough luck finding it here, using it and only getting an apple out of it, haha."

"Yeah, I know. Speaking of apple, I'm kinda hungry again, for some reason."

"Now that you mention it, something to eat wouldn't be bad. Here."

* * *

**Route 27**

Yes! My hopes had been fulfilled, this was the way out of the Dungeon! Relief came over me as I felt the light breeze around my body and breathed in the fresh air again, along with the various scents from the trees and flowers next to us. It was now late in the evening.

In the distance I saw a small mountain range near the horizon. They weren't high enough to have a snowy top, but instead had an immense amount of colorful flowers on them in many forms and shapes. There were so many one could say they were made out of flowers. Just imagining piles of flowers so big it would be classified as a mountain sounded bizarre to me. But who knew what this world was capable of in showing its inhabitants what it can create? I couldn't tell, for obvious reasons.

Surrounding our group and the path were still trees, but the amount of them had decreased tremendously after exiting the Dungeon. The area looked almost the same as the one where I woke up, almost nothing had changed. The green color of the leaves indicated the season of summer—at least, I thought it was. This wasn't my home planet, after all. But it's the only logical conclusion I came up with. This world was putting everything I knew of… everything, really, on its head. Kori told me I could control electricity, so I was very eager to learn what exactly I was supposed to be doing. This was something that should've not been possible in any way, shape, or form—but it was.

Through the scattered trees I spotted the beautiful sunset and the view of the now partially orange sky. It was magnificent, as if it had been ripped straight out of a fairytale. The only thing that's between the sunset and us two was a gigantic meadow. In it were various creatures I had never seen before. Asking Kori about them—but not before staring at the sky in awe for a solid minute—she told me there were wild Sentret, Rattata, Furret, Zigzagoon, Buneary, Skitty, Nidoran, and some others, describing where exactly they were so I could get a bit more familiar with a handful. Nidoran were the special bunch, she said their appearance was based on their gender, which very few Pokémon had, to my surprise. Some had minor changes, very few had obvious ones, and the rest had next to none.

While I stood there and watched the various wilds doing their thing in the meadow, the first "Hoo"s were heard in the trees. I spotted some small rodent Pokémon running around the grass, too—they even jumped over the gravel, as if it was an obstacle they had to overcome to reach their destination.

"Beautiful, isn't it? That's one of the positives of being in a exploration team, you get to see breathtaking views and sceneries like this," Kori remarked. "It's getting late, so we should get going… or, wait."

She was switching glances at the way forward and the sunset, careful enough to not get blinded by the sun. "You know what, we won't make it before it gets really dark, so we should find a place where we can sleep for the night."

"You… you mean sleeping... here? Outside? Without anything above us? Are you sure this is a good idea?" I wasn't really fond of getting wet, maybe a sudden rainfall would happen while we were asleep.

_Or, I'm again making it look worse than it is. I'm not a human anymore, so I would be able to withstand the forces of nature more easily, with all this fur to keep me warm._

"Come on, it's not that bad. I think I found us a nice place where we can rest. Trust me, you'll like sleeping outside." Came from her as she was looking at a particular tree.

* * *

Tired as I was, I accepted the suggestion from Kori that we should call it a day and find a place for the night, after everything that happened today—even if it just was a trip through a relatively small Dungeon. I was exhausted, and I guessed my guide was, too.

We, or rather, Kori, found a nice place under a treetop, its size being good enough to suit as a temporary shield from the rain for us both, if it happened to pour down at night. She wanted to make sure, she told me, as I watched the sky for any sign of bad weather, finding none for now.

By the time we found our sleeping place, the sun already had set behind the horizon, making more than enough space for the moon to shine; it was almost a full moon. The stars were dispersed all across the now blackish blue sky, most of them shining ever so brightly, with others just beginning to.

Now, there I laid. In another world, in a different body, with a stranger who was lucky enough to randomly find me, unconscious. No, what was I thinking, _I_ was the one who got found. My mind was already often coming up with what-if situations, but I tried not to directly focus on them.

While Kori was already in her position and ready for sleep to take her, I was still trying to find a comfortable position for me to slumber. Not wanting to disturb her, my body very quietly shifted around, until it finally got into an acceptable sleeping posture. My ears, as I had noticed, were just big enough for my head—I was able to put it on them and not let my cheeks touch the ground. They were cushy, and didn't protest against my head laying on top of them, too, so it was a win-win situation for me.

I was thinking, _wouldn't it be cold outside at night, especially with the wind around us?_ Actually, no, not at all. I felt it blowing against me and my fur alright, but the feeling of getting cold was nonexistent. It was fair to say that sleeping in the open like this was pretty relaxing.

While getting accustomed to the smell of grass, Kori spoke up.

"Hey, you asleep yet, Xunie?"

My head perked up and looked in her direction. She was doing the same, but with her legs under her head on the ground, and her leaf over her body to act as a blanket—she looked kinda cute doing that, I didn't know why that was. It seemed as if at any moment she would fall asleep.

"No, what is it, Kori?"

"Do you… uh, remember anything new?"

"...no, it's still as blank as it had been."

"Oh. That's..." It seemed like she didn't know what to say. "I'm… sorry."

"Huh? Sorry for what?"

"For the whole amnesia situation of yours. I… I can't imagine me being you right now; knowing I had a past, but not remembering anything about it. It must be very hard for you to accept that."

"I try not to think about it too hard." I sighed.

Silence followed. Only nocturnal creatures were making noise.

I yawned heavily. She followed right after.

"I'm... gonna sleep now. Good night, Kori."

"...Yeah. See you tomorrow."

I turned my head around and laid down on my ear again. After a quick search for a good spot, I closed my eyes, letting myself fall into dreamland.


	3. The Village

The sun's warm rays had already hit my eyes as I awoke from my dreamless sleep. It felt so nice to let it shine on me. The warmth was heavenly, even though I wasn't cold. Like I was laying on a cloud, drifting through the sky. And with the sound of the rustling trees and various bird Pokémon already awake, singing and chirping in the area, it was even better. The ground below me could've been gravel (like the path was made out of), and it still would've felt like I was laying on a mattress made out of wool.

After a long while of not moving at all, I slowly turned away from the sun, rubbed my eyes and opened them after a few blinks, stretching my body at the same time—I was standing on my hind legs while my forelegs were spread out before me on the ground, my claws were also showing themselves for a second. A yawn followed, with me noticing my dry mouth and throat.

_Yep, I'm still a Shinx. A thirsty one at that._

I shook my head and body to get most of the dirt off my fur, while my ears fluttered. Looking at the place I slept, I noticed the grass was pressed flat a bit.

I noticed at Kori's sleeping spot the grass was the same as here, but she wasn't present. Where did she go?

She couldn't have gone too far. Perhaps she wanted to search for something for breakfast. If there even was anything to find in the first place. This area didn't seem to have any growable fruits anywhere, but then how were the wild Pokémon supposed to get their food? My first thought was hunting, but there had to be some that only fed on plants and fruit.

Wait a second, didn't she say that we continue to the village at the break of dawn? Then why was she not here? The only semi productive thing I could've done was search for her, again, but I instead decided to just lay on my belly and waited for her while watching every couple seconds or so.

_I have to say, it's very nice around here. I could just relax for the whole day if I weren't so thirsty. It almost feels like a desert in my mouth._

A few metres away from me was the gravel path. The same path I woke up next to. It was strange to know that I was supposed to be somewhere completely different, and after blinking once or twice my body and consciousness were transported into a whole nother world. ...or universe. ...or whatever. The same path where Kori found me, where she wanted to carry someone she had never met before to a village I had never heard of. The same path which led us into something I never thought would be physically possible, a Mystery Dungeon. Glad that was over and done with. Never ever did I want to go into one again. But something told me that, sooner or later, I had to. _Oh, right, when we're going back. Great._

To my right was the forest we traversed through. This one was but an ordinary one, though. I could still feel a tiny bit of fear in me, when I first met those giant walking trees. I wasn't sure why I was scared for my life, probably because they were like ten times bigger than me. But… would their attack even hurt? They didn't seem to have any sorts of claws on them anywhere. They couldn't possibly be made out of rocks, that's just preposterous and illogical. How were they even alive, being a rock? This world was just turning everything I knew upside down and was showing me that even the most bizarre things were possible.

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye I saw Kori. The Chikorita looked like her, at least. She was at a stream near the denser part of the forest. It was a sharp turn of the stream, almost a 180° one. I felt myself drawn to the small river, as if I was somehow a missing part of it.

I made my way to it, guessing what Kori was doing and why she was over there. As I was nearing the stream I noticed some wild Pokémon drinking from it in the distance, making me remind myself that my throat was almost made of dust. Was that why I had such an urge to go there? Had my instincts helped with that, too?

Not long after navigating between the tree trunks, I arrived at the small river. And small it was, I could almost cross it without having to jump over. The sun tried her best to shine through the different sized treetops, and the small amount of sunbeams reflected themselves in the stream. The stream itself made almost no sound from where I stood; the only noises it made was Kori drinking from it, and at a stone in the middle of it a few metres downstream, but even this was very quiet. I had to concentrate on it through the chirping birds in the treetops. _That means it must be safe to drink for me, too._

The water was crystal clear; not a single hint of pollution existed. This made me a tiny bit happier, knowing that the water was really safe to drink from.

But there were more important things than being concerned what was in the water or what wasn't—the only thing on my mind was my urgent need for hydration. Also, one wrong step and I could land in the Dungeon again. Speaking of it, left, and further down the stream from us were those small ripples appearing and disappearing in a rapid motion in the air. _That has to be where the Dungeon begins. better not go near it._

Again, I couldn't look away from the ripples. They mesmerized me with their arbitrary way of manifesting themselves in mid-air, seemingly never appearing in the same place twice, letting me forget my need for water for a second. I would've lied if I told myself I wasn't charmed by their show.

"Oh, hey, Xunie," the voice ripped my vision off the anomaly, and I was now looking at Kori. "You're awake, I see." She seemed happy.

"Yeah, hey." I tried to wave with a paw. My voice sounded more dry than usually. My focus immediately shifted itself to the flowing stream of water.

"Right, you must be crazy thirsty." she said.

"You have no idea."

I slammed my muzzle into the water, getting ready to drink. It was very cold to the touch, as expected from a stream going through a forest, where almost no sunlight can reach it. But there was something else I noticed, something about not thinking ahead. After I opened my mouth, that's when it happened. The water wasn't entering through my mouth, but my nostrils. I wasn't able to drink like I used to as a human.

Immediately afterwards I started coughing.

I was sure some green creature next to me chuckled because of that.

_Oh my- …!_

I had done it again.

"I know what you're thinking right now," I said before Kori could do anything else, me looking away from her with closed eyes and a raised paw, "and I may know what you want to say about this, but please don't, ok? I'm fully aware of what just happened."

Thankfully she accepted my request in staying quiet. She looked ready to burst out laughing, she could not wipe her smile from her face... _Luckily she is the only one nearby who saw this._ Still, that didn't help the shame I was feeling. Not even 24 hours at existing in a different world, and at being a Pokémon, and stuff like this was happening. This was the, what, third time now? I didn't bother counting.

_I could just- ...arg!_

Trying to calm down and ignore the accident, I was approaching the water again. This time thinking carefully before plunging into it a second time. How were animals—or Pokémon for that matter—supposed to drink water, again? It could've been helpful if I'd been watching how Kori (or any other wild Pokémon in the distance) were drinking from it... was it… _Oh!_

I ordered my tongue to grab some of the water and to put it into my mouth. It worked! Slowly but surely I picked up the speed I was drinking. It was nothing like the feeling of the sunbathing from before, but the water trickling down my throat felt so… refreshing, even if it was devoid of any taste. Like cooling myself off on a hot summer day.

"Ahh. Much better." I sat down on the grass and relaxed, breathing in a big chunk of air.

"I knew you would… do it, Xunie." Kori 'congratulated' me, barely holding back her laughter, "Sorry, but it's just-"

"Yeah, yeah. I get it. It's funny, I know. Even for my circumstances and whatnot."

She seemed to remember something. Did Kori seriously forget that I became a Pokémon just yesterday?

"I- oh," came from her as a whisper, "right, there was a... thing about you… sorry."

She totally did.

"No problem. Uh, didn't we want to go to the village in the morning?"

Suddenly she gasped. "Oh Mew, did I forget that, too? Oh no…" A worrying look was visible in her eyes, but why would she be worried about this? "Come on, we have to go! Now!"

"Woah, hey, calm down, Kori, what's the deal? Why the sudden rush?"

"We'll miss breakfast!" She was preparing her vines for something.

"...breakfast? That's the reason why you-" something reached under me and was lifting me up until I landed on her back. It was so fast, too, I didn't have any time to counteract. When I finally noticed what was going on, it was impossible for me to free myself without injuring her vines. "H-hey! What the hell are you doing?!"

"Getting us breakfast," she answered after she reached the gravel path, "since you may not be able to keep up with me yet, I decided I'll just carry you until we're there."

"That's the reason why you suddenly wrapped me up in your vines?!" I shouted. I kinda had to, she picked me up the wrong way. Did I have to endure the feeling of running backwards until we arrive? She was running pretty fast, too. "How long are they?" They were holding my body almost like a cocoon would. The only difference was that my head was free, and some of my fur was showing at a few places. Comfort was something I wished for right then. One leg was squished between the vines and my neck, and the other was dangling freely.

Must've been funny looking. Me on her back, but in the wrong direction, tightly wrapped up so I wouldn't fall off.

"What, my vines? I'll show you later, don't you worry."

_She can make them even longer? Is that what she meant by that?_

"Are you sure you can carry me all the way to the village? How far away is it?"

"I've carried some heavier stuff in my life, so this shouldn't be problematic for me. Although it's been some time… eh, I'll be alright. As for the village, not sure, but I'm sure it's gonna take some time to get there."

"Can you at least turn me around, please?" I asked her after I'd calmed down from her sudden attack. At some point Kori hit a turn in the path and didn't slow down at all. My body was pressing even harder on my trapped leg now.

"Come on, surely you can endure that? If you still feel dizzy, for whatever reason, just close your eyes and you will be fine. Don't worry, I'm gonna tell you when we arrive. I can guarantee that we'll be there in the next few hours."

"Kori… I hope you're joking." I sighed.

* * *

**Outskirts of Inisio Village**

After what felt like hours of being taken hostage from a green, talking lizard and uncomfortably shifting positions, Kori suddenly stopped after another right turn. Had we finally arrived? I couldn't wait to walk freely again. My trapped leg fell asleep a while ago, and this would be a good opportunity to wake it up. But instead of her telling me that we were here, the opposite was the case.

I heard her gasp, and she let me go, me now on her back. Slowly, I tried to climb down and carefully get to my feet. Halfway there, Kori suddenly sounded very scared.

"X-Xunie… look at this!"

If even Kori was scared of something, it had to be serious. I turned around, expecting the worst, and…

...downhill and not far from us, I saw ruins. Not the big kind of ruins from ancient times, but ruins of… houses? Cottages? Did humans used to live here? They didn't look like they were centuries old, though…

"Uhh…" I said, "what's going on, Kori?"

"Don't you see it?!"

"See what? These ruins there? Yeah, I see them... uh, why are you making such a fuss out of this? They are just some ancient proof that humans existed, aren't they?"

"...Xunie, these weren't built by humans."

"What? ...then what are you-"

"Xunie, this is supposed to be Inisio Village!"

 _This is… Inisio Village? Did Pokémon... really build those houses?_ I looked again, and then back to Kori.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure! It's the nearest village here, this HAS to be Inisio. But why is it..." she started running again, showing no signs of exhaustion.

"Hey, wait for me!"

This was the moment where I wanted to follow her, but my leg was still fast asleep. _So this_ is _the village Kori was talking about... must've been a tedious task to build it without the ability to grab stuff. If you have no vines, like Kori has._ It slowly woke up, and I could stand on all fours again, after the feeling of a thousand needles poking my leg subsided. _...or humanoid Pokémon exist, that's also a possibility._

I still lacked the ability to run, so I had to jog my way to Kori. Luckily the path continued downhill from here.

On my way there, I noticed there being a sign next to the path. At least it looked like one: wooden pole in the ground and more than enough space to write something on. But this wasn't what I was interested in, I looked more to the destroyed buildings left and right from where the path was continuing through the village. It had maybe only a dozen houses. It looked like a country village post-war, and this place was the center of it all. Some houses were made entirely out of what looked like clay, but most of them were made of wood. The clay ones even had windows on them—it surprised me that they knew how to create glass. Although the glass panels were tiny, they were still useable as windows. _Speaking of glass, I should take caution when walking near a house._

The path continued, seemingly having no end; it could also just go in a big circle around the region. Also, there seemed to be some kind of statue a bit deeper into the village, and the path widened there. Now the next question was: was this statue a Pokémon? After everything I witnessed the other day—just yesterday, in fact—literally ANYTHING could be a living creature. ...except maybe the gravel beneath me.

I had almost arrived at my destination, that meant I could identify what the sign had to say. I looked at it, and it said: ...footprints? Were those footprints? Was this some kind of prank? I tried, but couldn't find anything resembling the English alphabet. _Who in their right mind thought 'hey, let's use footprints as written language!' Maybe he told everyone his brilliant idea and they applauded and accepted it because they had too much to drink that night. On the following day they died of alcohol poisoning. The End._

 _No, but seriously. Who came up with that?_ I didn't even want to imagine the work someone had to do when they wanted to write something on wood, or anywhere else. Seemingly no footprint was used twice on this sign. If I had to guess what was on there I would say 'Inisio Village'.

_...do I have to learn it, eventually? Who knows how long I will be in this world. Someday I might have to. But until then Kori has to translate it for me._

There was still no sign of Kori. I wanted to search for her again, but I was more interested in the remaining interiors of those houses. I picked the nearest one from where I stood, the one on the right.

The house had a door made of wood, but was flat on the ground. It had a round top, with a small window to look through. Its hinges were still on it. A part was missing from the wall where they were attached. Looked like it was brutally kicked in. The handle was the strange part, however. it had the shape of a ring, where my paw could easily fit through. I put two and two together, and noticed it was non-hand friendly: I put my paw through, pressed it down, and the door made a click. Under the door itself was a simple doormat, with nothing on it.

But enough of the door. The interior was, shockingly enough, pretty human-like. To the left of me was some kind of clothes hanger, the only thing on it was a blue and a red scarf. Further down there was what looked like a normal kitchen: with a counter, refrigerator, stove, and a sink. I guessed they built them like humans did. There even was a table with three chairs, made of wood. The floor was, ignoring the broken remains, also made of wood. To the right was a hall, with two more rooms.

The one on the left looked like a living room. Some hay was on the ground, probably serving as some sort of couch. _So they have a normal kitchen, but a big pile of hay as a couch?_ This room had the most debris so far, almost half of the room was filled with broken remnants of the house. There also were broken shards of glass everywhere.

The last room was a bedroom, as indicated from the piles of hay on the ground. It had the only window of the house that hadn't been shattered yet. They had the same handle on them as the door had. Along the floor was a black carpet with orange flower patterns. I was asking myself why they had no wardrobe, but I quickly remembered that this wasn't a house where humans had lived.

Several questions entered my mind. _What happened here? And when? Where are the residents? Did they manage to flee? Or… are they trapped beneath the rubble?_

"...H-hello?" I managed to say after exiting the bedroom. "A-anybody here?"

Just now I noticed the immense silence. My heartbeat was the only thing I heard.

_If they're not somewhere deep within the rubble, then I hope they're somewhere safe. Should we even be here?_

Suddenly, I heard something coming from the remains in the living room, startling me, I looked at what I thought was the source of the sound. Very small pebbles were rolling down the pile, and then nothing.

Wait… was that blue, white tipped furry thing always there? It looked like a tail…

Curiosity got the better of me and I made my way to the mysterious object. A part of my mind was telling me I shouldn't, but the other part told me to check it out.

As I got near the object, I felt dizzy. Not so much that I couldn't walk anymore, but still noticeable. I brushed it off, thinking it was just a result of my tension increasing with every step.

But not long after I had the strange feeling of getting pushed away from the blue object. Like I was the north pole of a magnet, trying to connect with another north one. The dizziness, meanwhile, was getting worse.

I felt lighter, too. So light, I could almost jump into the air and float around.

In fact, I _was_ practically floating around! My feet were just barely touching the ground. I only noticed it after I stopped walking forward.

"Wh- whoa! WHOAAA!" My feet were struggling, trying their best to get on the ground again. I was floating! "AAHHH!"

The object turned out to be a tail, and the rubble around it was also very slightly off the ground. Someone, or rather something, was moving it without touching it…

"W-what's going on?!"

It easily freed itself of the broken parts of the house, and was now staring directly at me with its emotionless expression. It… looked like a cat on two legs, to put it simply. Its ears appeared to be folded. It had mostly dark blue fur, with white fur on the head, almost resembling a haircut, at the tip of its ears, the thicker furred neck, arm-paws, feet, and tail. Speaking of tail, it had two of those! Its eyes were eerily glowing in a green color, illuminating the room.

I wanted to flee, but found out it was impossible. Before I wanted to scream for help, it had put pressure on my mouth, somehow, so that I couldn't open it anymore. The only thing coming from me were muffled screams.

 _ **What have you done?**_ A male voice, communicating with me like the orb had back at the Dungeon. It sounded angry.

I could only come up with a muffled "Hmm?"

_**Human, what have you done?** _

_H-how does he know I'm a human?! Can… can he… read my memories?!_

The pressure on my mouth decreased. I was able to speak again, but only in a whisper.

"Wh- how do you know I'm a human?"

_**Do not play dumb, you know exactly why. Now tell me! What have you done?!** _

I had no idea what this psycho wanted from me. I hadn't done anything! Was he thinking I destroyed the village?

"I- ...nothing! I didn't-"

He stepped nearer. _**Do you honestly think I will believe your lies? Why did you send it here?!**_

"'It'? What is… 'it'?"

 _ **I said: do not play dumb!**_ The voice was shouting now, it hurt my head every time he spoke. _**Do you really think your lack of knowledge can fool me?**_

"What… do you want from me?!" It hurt so much, my head was starting to pound. "I didn't do… anything!"

_**I did not do anything, I have not done anything wrong, WILL YOU STOP WITH THAT?!** _

My paws were wrapped around my head now, the pain was unbearable. It was so intense, even, I started to cry.

"Leave me alone!" I managed to scream. "What is your problem?! WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!"

His emotionless stare hadn't changed a single bit. He completely lost it. I had no chance against this psychopath, one because I couldn't move, and two he looks much stronger than me. This was it. This was how I was going to die. This insane two-legged feline creature with tremendous psychic powers was going to kill me.

_**...you leave me with no other choice.** _

An extreme headache followed, it felt like my brain was being kneaded, scrambled, and was going to explode at the same time. Screaming was impossible for me, the pressure around my snout was back, even stronger this time—but not enough that I wasn't able to breath. My paws still holding tight, thinking it would sooth the pain.

I shut my eyes hard, I started seeing white specks in the darkness. Slowly, they started to disappear… until the pain overwhelmed me and saw only black.

* * *

With a mild headache, I managed to open my eyes. I was still in the same, broken house, laying on a pile of hay. It seemed to be midday, the sun was shining into it.

"Hey, he's moving again!" A familiar voice entered my eardrums. It was Kori!

"Kori? Wh- what happened?" I felt weak, and my voice came out merely as a whisper. She was laying next to me, so this wasn't a problem.

"I think I have to answer this." A new, but also familiar voice appeared, was it…? A shudder ran through my body.

"You better. What did you do to him?" She stood up, sounding fierce.

"Let me do this first, please." Yes, it was the two legged feline. He... suddenly kneeled before me, like I was a king. "I have to apologize to you, Xunie."

_...He wants to what? Apologize that he almost ripped my brains out of my head?_

"I… yes. That is the reason. But first, let me introduce myself. I am Nogua, a Meowstic. I am a psychic type. Psychic types are one of the few types who can do such things. And more, as you may have noticed." He proceeded in lifting up some pebbles, and with the increased amount of sunlight entering the room, I noticed the air around them looked a little distorted. "I forcefully went through your memories, and… you were saying the truth. By the time I found out, you were already out cold. I'm sorry." He stood back up.

He read my thoughts again! It was unnerving, being around him, having no privacy even in my very own thoughts. He said that so casually, too, as if this kind of thing was something he did everyday.

"Can you _not_ read my thoughts?"

"Oh, was I? Sometimes I cannot notice the difference between speech and thoughts. I will stop."

"Promise."

He let out a sigh. "I promise."

_Thank you. I can't believe creatures exist that have psychic powers. This world keeps on surprising me._

_...Wait._

"...You said you went through my memories, right?"

"I did, yes. And I have noticed you have a pretty severe case of amnesia there… something I have never seen before. Whoever caused this, it must have been one of the best of its kind."

"You're suggesting someone did this to him?" Kori sat down again.

"Quite possibly. You cannot get memory loss this strong just from a head injury or trauma. But who did this to him? And why?"

"So… you didn't see anything from my past? From before I was turned into a Shinx?" The chance was slim, but I asked anyway.

"Unfortunately, I did not."

I knew it. Not even a psychic could find out what happened to me. I laid down again and was listening to Kori and Nogua discussing something.

"So," came from Kori, "what exactly happened here? And when?"

"It happened yesterday afternoon. It came out of nowhere, and destroyed almost everything. As far as I know, I am the only one left."

"'It'? What is 'it'?"

"I do not know."

"You… don't know?"

"It… was something I have never seen before." _Hey, isn't that my answer to everything?_

 _...Now I'm interested as well._ "Do you know how 'it' looks like?"

"I caught a glimpse of it, so yes. It had- Argh!" He suddenly held his head with a pained expression.

"Nogua!" Kori got up and ran to him. "What's wrong?"

As suddenly as it came, it stopped. Nogua was almost hyperventilating now, as he dropped his emotionless stare: a wave of fear struck him.

"Nogua? You alright?"

"...I- ...I am fine."

"What happened?"

"...That… was 'it'."

"Uh… what?"

"That was 'it', I am sure of it. I guess it… planted something in me, so that I cannot tell anyone its true appearance."

_...That sounded… odd._

"Really, now? That's interesting…" Looked like Kori had the same opinion on this as I had.

"No, I'm serious. I saw it again as I had tried to tell you…"

_That's absurd. How would that even work? Maybe distant telepathy or some shit like that, I dunno. Everything seems possible here._

"...Alright, how's this: we go back to Amber Village and report what we've seen here. I bring you to our local psychic, and after that I show Xunie around. Ok?"

_Kori's village has a psychic? Is he like the doctor of it? Huh. Maybe I'll visit him some day._

"Sure, but I am not certain that will help with the identification of the attacker. Worst case scenario, this psychic is going to get the same condition as I have."

"Hmm. You could be right… but it's worth a shot, no?"

"If he accepts the worst, then I am willing to let him search for it."

"Alright then, let's go. Xunie, can you walk?"

I managed to stand up and walked a few steps, the headache now gone. I nodded and added a quick "Yeah."

* * *

We arrived at the sign of the village, and going back the way we came from, as it hit me. I hoped, with all my might, that we wouldn't have to do this.

"Do we have to go through the Dungeon again?" I looked at Kori.

"We don't _have_ to. We have two options. One, going around it and waste maybe two days, or two, going through it and progressing the same distance in less than half a day. Didn't I kinda tell you this already?"

"...Oh. It's going to be second one, right?"

"Yup." She smiled with very clear signs of mockery.

I sighed. _I don't wanna go through that again…_

"Sorry if I ask, but why do you not want to go through it?"

"Did you read my thoughts again?"

"No, it is pretty clear you despise traversing through Dungeons. The question of yours, the answer, and the annoyed sigh was enough for me to tell that."

"Yeah, yeah. And the fact I can't defend myself with electric attacks, I know."

"You… what? You cannot?"

"I thought you knew that already. Because of the thing you did, you know?"

"There is no reason to get all irritated now. What happened is in the past. It happened, and nobody can change it anymore. And I won't break my promise. I respect your request of not reading your thoughts anymore. Now, if you don't mind, can you elaborate on your lack of elemental offense?"

_Oh, look at me, I'm a kitty on two legs, and I have to speak like I'm an intellectual. It's not annoying. At all._

"Xunie, please. I would like to know."

"Come on, Xunie." Kori begged. "Don't be like that."

 _Uuuuuh. Fine._ I rolled my eyes.

"Alright, alright. I don't know how to, ok? I can't find out how to use my electricity."

"Hmm." He held a paw on his chin. "Shinx generally have their source of energy in their body… have you tried finding it?"

"I sure did. And no, I didn't find anything that stood out to me."

"...Interesting. We should get you to a training area for electrics, to be sure. I might have an answer to your lack of electricity..."

"And that would be...?"

"It might sound crazy to you, but this would not be the first time someone had this condition...

"You do not have your source of elemental energy."

I… didn't have one…?

"Nogua, I don't think this is the case," Kori interrupted, "Xunie used to be a human, and he isn't yet fully accustomed to his body. It's likely he hasn't found it. But to say he doesn't even have his own type…?"

I had made sure to search everywhere for it. Nogua might've been right… I had been looking forward to control lightning, only to get told I didn't even have it since the beginning. There was still a chance for this to be false, right?

"It is still a possibility. Like I said, Xunie would not be the first one to have this kind of condition. I knew someone whose Ekans acquaintance didn't have his poison type."

"I've heard about that, but I'm sceptical. You don't just… _lose_ your type."

"Uh, what's an Ekans?" Now it was my turn to interrupt.

"A long, purple snake. Highly venomous." Nogua was the first one to answer.

* * *

**Route 27**

We arrived at the Dungeon. The familiar forest with its purple sparks stood before us. The path was continuing like normal through the midst of those bolts. Before we entered it, however, something more important had to be done: drinking the fresh water from the almost ice cold stream.

Nogua wasn't drinking like we did, as I'd noticed. He grabbed a handful of water with his oh-so-magical psychic powers, until a wobbly ball of water was floating in the direction of his mouth. Then, he divided the ball into smaller balls, until he was able to comfortably put them in his mouth. _Ok, I have to admit, that's more practical than anything else I've seen so far._

On our entire way back, I had only one thing on my mind. Two, actually, one being the Dungeon.

If Nogua was saying the truth—which I seriously hoped he wasn't—that I didn't have my elemental powers, that would be bad news for me. How was I supposed to save myself from a dire situation? Kori told me I could do almost nothing against a few types. When I had to get through one or more of them by myself, I'd be screwed big time! My physical appearance looked weak on the outside, but my claws were saying something different… were they really that sharp? I should've tested them while we were still at the village, but who said I couldn't do it here?

While no one was looking, I crept away from the two and searched for a tree nearby. I extended my claws on one paw, and tried to scratch the rough bark off.

Instead of my claws stopping at the bark to leave some scratch marks, they went through them! I could easily rip it off of the tree!

_W-what…?!_

Looking shocked at the unexpected result, I decided to take it a step further and targeted the wood. _M-maybe the bark was not as rough as it looked like..._

It was almost the same as the bark. My claws inserted themselves into the wood with ease, like a hot knife into a cake would. And now there was a giant scratch mark on the tree. How were they able to do this?! They looked just like a cat's claws would...

_Are my claws made of fucking steel or something? How…?_

I was staring at the claw marks and at my claws in disbelief. There was no way this was possible, yet I saw it was with my own eyes.

_M-maybe I'm not that much in need of help… Now I have to be extremely careful with my claws when somebody's around. Should I tell Kori of this…?_

"Hey, Xunie," Kori called, "we're ready to go now!"

"What are you doing at that tree? ...Oh, no worries, I won't look."

"Nothing, I, uh… I'm on my way!"

I thought Kori was looking at me, but as I got closer, I realized she wasn't. She looked beyond me, at the… oh.

"Hey, what's that? Was that the reason why you were there?"

"Oh, nothing, I was just, uh…"

"Are those claw marks?" She made her way to the tree. "Oh, yes, they are…but from what…?"

_I sure hope Nogua isn't sniffing around…_

I caught a quick glimpse of him, but he was just standing there, with his usual expression.

"Something wrong, Xunie? You look awfully nervous."

"What? No, no. There's n-nothing wrong."

"It is the Dungeon, is it not? No worries. Traversing Dungeons with two other 'mon by your side is much better than one."

"It's nothing, really."

"Ok," Kori suddenly declared, "I'm not entirely sure what caused those claw marks, but I don't want to waste any more time on finding out. Might've just been a fight between two wilds. Everyone ready?"

We both nodded.

"Then let's go."


End file.
